Where I am not!

Ah, tristesse! On this day I would normally be arriving at about this time of the afternoon in Cannes, for the MipTV conference and content market event.

And so I shall not be whiling away evenings in Fouquet's Bar of the Majestic Hotel or taking lunchtime breaks at the hotel's beach (shown above) since this year neither of my clients finds my attendance mandatory.

On the other hand, I can follow the MipTV blog and, during the coming week, complete a full schedule of English language localization for series being offered in Cannes by Motorvision TV.

Media & technology journalist Stuart Dredge is going to be liveblogging some of the key sessions during MIPTV this year. If you're attending MIPTV, you probably don't need to be told about the double-edged sword of new technology. The internet has been a huge disruptive force for the creative industries. However, the internet isn't just about piracy. It's about new opportunities, new business models and new audiences.

Then there's the mobile market, with its boom in smartphones and app downloads, and even more opportunities for broadcasters and producers. Oh, and yes, there's this little-known gadget called the iPad. You might have heard of it...

With all this in mind, what I'm most looking forward to at MIPTV is hearing how companies are adapting to the digital world. What's been successful and why? Is this just about new ways to watch existing content, or a chance for new content to flourish too? How are these new distribution channels changing the deals and dealmakers of the TV world, and who's best placed to profit? And what are the barriers to making the most of these opportunities?

Lots of questions, basically, I certainly don't expect any one speaker to have all the answers. But my hope for next week is to hear some real success stories from the online and mobile worlds, and some straight talking about what needs to be done to ensure there are even more of them in the year ahead. I'm also really looking forward to the sessions focusing on social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook. One of the most intriguing TV trends in the last year has been, well, trends. Trends on Twitter. Specifically the way key TV events have become 'trending topics' on Twitter, as viewers tweet from their sofas about the shows they're watching live. Whether it's X-Factor, Champions League football or the BNP leader on Question Time - to name just a few UK examples - Twitter has become an increasingly compelling backchannel to any big live TV event. Indeed, you could argue that it's making more people tune in, rather than time-shift.

I'm hoping to hear some smart people talk about what this means for TV, and how broadcasters and producers can capitalise (if indeed they can). But anyway, social media will be one of the fascinating topics next week, and again, I'm hoping for some attention-grabbing success stories. If Facebook can get Rage Against The Machine a Christmas number one, what can it do for TV?